Her Majesty, the Royal Head of State, comes to your school to give a lecture, a speech, really, on a specific topic. She speaks for about an hour and then leaves.
However a few events occur that mitigate the circumstances
When she arrives she sits on stage while the president of the school honors the gentleman who funded the lecture series. After that she is introduced and she gives her speech. Her body guards are mostly visible. She is very clearly dressed as Royalty should be. Not excessive, she was very elegant.
After her speech she is thanked very briefly by the person who introduced her.
Do you?
A). Stand up and leave
B). Mill about
C). Start making phone calls on you cell phone
D). Remain seated until she and her entourage have exited the presence of the audience
If you chose D you did what I did. If you chose A, B, or C, you did what just about everybody else in the audience did when Queen Noor of Jordan spoke.
I personally feel that this showed the deeply rooted disrespect that Americans have for both Royalty and for authority (i'd say foreigners but Queen Noor was an American citizen).
After her speech she is thanked very briefly by the person who introduced her.
The gentleman who introduced her, and i use the term gentleman loosely, basically stopped her while she was exiting the stage. Personally, i feel that he not only dismissed Queen Noor and the audience. Frankly, i hold him responsible for this great show of disrespect.
If there is any head of state in the world that appears to be attempting to follow the guidlines set down by Baha'u'llah for monarchs (though she very clearly has a political agenda, she's still doing a damn decent job actualizing human rights and equity in Jordan) it is probably Queen Noor.
I'm astounded at the pervasive disrespect that was shown this woman and extremely embarrassed to be an American youth right now.
Oh, and by the way, I was in the 'Miami Student' with kristen. It's not much but, enjoy.
http://www.mustudent.muohio.edu/article.php?d=092404&s=front&n=1
i should have voiced my complaints about the disrespect in the article.
Posted by Mendon at September 25, 2004 10:18 PMWow! You got to hear Queen Noor speak!?!? I am SOOOO jealous! That's so cool and awesome and amazing!
Posted by: Mara at September 26, 2004 2:19 AMMuch as I respect and admire Queen Noor, I really don't consider Jordan a bastion of egalitarianism or freedom. It is a fairly moderate monarchy hobbled by a opportunistic and radical clergy.
Posted by: Mark Fojas at September 26, 2004 11:48 AMI think the disrespect shown by the students was more ignorance of protocal. I suspect that most of them really didn't think about it and acted as though she was any of the speakers who have come to the school. They may have acted differently if it was the Pres of the US, but that is more familiar. Be gentle on these poor ignorant folks.
Posted by: Nannie at September 26, 2004 3:54 PMI read the article. I suspect that you could have voiced your opinion til the cows came home and it wouldn't have made it into the article.
Posted by: Nannie at September 26, 2004 9:33 PMHmmmm... the article... i didn't try and voice that opinion. it hadn't formed. it really came out as an observation later. i think that i'm going to write a letter to the president of the university and to the "miami student" i will send an editorial. and, as american law states very clearly, ignorance is not an excuse! there are other issues of ignorance of protocal, like female genital mutilation, that are practiced. i don't feel that people should be lenient, especially when people will argue, 'no harm, no foul.' that means you can get away with it until somebody gets hurt.
sigh
The rules vary all over the world. Whose rules are we going to follow when?
Posted by: Nannie at September 27, 2004 11:22 AMAnd you did write the president of the university. You'll have to post if he writes you back; I'm interested to know what he had to say...
: )